Debt Ceiling 2013: Senators Close To A Deal That Includes Ending Shutdown

U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nevada, at the U.S. Capitol.
Reuters

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to reporters during the partial government shutdown in Washington October 14, 2013.
Reuters

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Reuters

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Update 10 p.m. EDT: "We hope with good fortune and the support of all you (senators) —recognizing how hard this is for everybody — that perhaps tomorrow will be a bright day," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday evening on the Senate floor.

USA Today reports that the draft proposal still under negotiation would approve a stopgap funding bill to reopen government through Jan. 15; suspend the debt ceiling until Feb. 7; and create the framework for formal budget negotiations to conclude by Dec. 15 with long-term recommendations for funding levels and deficit reduction.

Notably missing from the proposal are any changes to or delays of the Affordable Care Act. i.e. Obamacare, as many Republicans have demanded.

Original story:

We are not there yet, but there's a hint of a deal that could extend the debt ceiling into next year and end a government shutdown that’s been in place for 14 days.

President Barack Obama’s meeting with congressional leaders on Monday was postponed, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were said to be closing in on a deal.

The two leaders began speaking over the weekend and were scheduled to meet with the president at 3 p.m., along with their House counterparts. However, the White House said delaying the meeting will allow the men “time to continue making important progress towards a solution that raises the debt limit and reopens the government.”

Reid has said that he is “very optimistic” about the “good-faith negotiation,” while McConnell said he expects results that “will be acceptable by both sides."

Emerging details of the deal, though few, seem to have roots in a recently rejected plan crafted by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. That plan proposed to open the government and extend the debt ceiling, but with some concessions on Obamacare that included a repeal of the law’s medical device tax and income verification measures.

Emerging details of the deal, though few, seem to have its roots in a recently rejected plan crafted by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. That plan proposed to open the government and extend the debt ceiling, but with some concessions on Obamacare that included a repeal of the law’s medical device tax and income verification measures.

Now the medical device tax looks like it’s off the bargaining table. According to Politico, the deal now being discussed requires that larger budget talks between chamber end by chamber end by Dec. 13 and that the Health and Human Services certify that those benefiting from Obamacare subsidies meet the requisite income level. And that’s just the win for Republicans.

Democrats would get a delay in a reinsurance tax that set to occur in 2014 and continue for three calendar years, according to Roll Call.

The possible deal, according to ABC News, would fund the government until Jan. 15 and increase the debt limit until about Feb. 15.